1. Technological Field
The present invention relates to a printer and to a printing method.
2. Background Technology
Some printers perform printing by spraying ink from nozzles, causing ink drops (dots) to land on a medium. There are known in the art printers provided with a roll paper printing mechanism for performing printing while appropriately dispensing segments of a medium to be subjected to printing from a medium which has been wound in roll form (roll paper). With this kind of printer, printing is carried out while the amount of the medium conveyed is adjusted by controlling the amount of rotation of the roll paper, and of the amount of rotation of conveyor rollers which convey the medium (paper) once dispensed from the roll paper. In printers provided with a roll paper printing mechanism, during control of the amount of rotation of the roll paper and the conveyor rollers, constant tension is imparted to the medium so that slackness does not arise in the medium as it is being conveyed. However, because the roll diameter of the paper roll changes due to the medium being consumed as printing progresses, the amount of rotation of the roll paper is not appropriately controlled, making it difficult to continue to apply a constant tension to the medium during printing. In order to address such problems, there has been proposed a method whereby the torque setting for the drive motor of the roll paper is controlled in correspondence with changes in roll diameter, to adjust the amount of rotation of the roll paper and impart constant tension to the medium despite changes in roll diameter (Patent Citation 1, for example).
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-208921 (Patent Document 1) is an example of the related art.